A BLOG BY ALAN CHAMBERS

Alan on NPR

The Fresh Air interview I taped in August with Terry Gross aired yesterday nationwide.  The Exodus office received numerous calls, emails and new hits to the website as a result. The majority of the feedback was extremely positive, but there was negative feedback, as well.  I listened to the interview yesterday afternoon and, prior to getting any feedback at all, realized that I said one thing that I wished I could have clarified.  Thus, I want to do so here.

Without listening to the entire interview again I won't be able to give the exact quote, but I said something like, "One of the greatest myths operating in our culture today is that the majority of the gay community is interested in anti discrimination laws."

I have to say that my experience is anecdotal.  The majority of everyday gay and lesbian folks I meet or hear from (a significant number) do tell me that they aren't interested in the gay rights battles for anti-discrimination laws, benefits for same-sex couples or marriage.  I have several activists friends who regularly tell me that they are angered by the majority of their gay friends because of their ambivalence to the gay rights issues and politics in general.

An activist friend (on the other side) emailed me some stats from a 2003 Gallup Poll that stated 9 in 10 Americans (88%) support "equal opportunities for gays and lesbians in the workplace."  I would like to see the questions that were asked, how many people were sampled and who those people were.  Depending on the questions asked that poll might have included me as one of those making up the 88%---but I am far from a proponent of anti-discrimimnation laws.

According to another poll conducted by the LA Times, 72% of Americans favor "laws to protect gays against job discrimination."  Again, what was the question that was asked?  Who were the people polled?  What area of the country were they from?  I know that a lot of Christian and conservative people might fall into the 72% depending on how the questions were phrased---like I said above, even I might fall into the category.

I also received an email with some survey results from a survey that was conducted by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force this year.  The results were that the two top policy priorities for LGBT people were 1) Marriage equality and 2)Non-discrimination laws.  In this survey conducted at 7 gay pride events, 1440 or so people were polled.

Unless there is more to the study than I saw, this information is much the same as mine: anecdotal. Those who attend gay pride events are ones who, for the most part, are politically and socially active.  They are a good representation of the activist community, but not of everyone who is gay or lesbian. What cities were these events in?  Who was polled?  The results aren't surprising given the events and the typical attendees.

Nonetheless, I wish I had stated clearly that the information I was giving was based upon my own experience and was in fact my opinion.

Thanks to those of you who weighed in on both sides of the debate.

THANK YOU, Mr. President.

Finally, someone addresses the fact that trust was breeched and that children were violated.  Why did it take nearly a week for someone to focus on our number one priority: the children?

Read the President's statement released this morning at 10:28 PDT.

Hopefully we will hear more of this from other leaders.

Seriously, Congressmen, What About the Children?

Everyone is trying to cover their own butt related to the Mark Foley scandal.  Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrats are calling for investigations to see "who knew" about the predatory emails that former Rep. Foley (R-FL) was sending to high school age Congressional pages.  I just read that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert said there was nothing more he could have done and House Majority Leader John Boehner say that he thought the "ball was in (Hastert's) court" concerning the 2005 allegations. 

Regardless of who is talking about this situation, be it the media, Republicans or Democrats, NO ONE is mentioning the children.  Frankly, I care far less about who knew than I do about these young men who were violated by Mr. Foley.  Where is the apology from the House leadership of both parties to these young men and their families?  Where is the assurance that this won't happen again? This shines a spotlight on the absolute selfishness of our leaders and highlights their lack of regard for anything but their own personal wellbeing.

The little faith that I had in our elected leaders is quickly dwindling.

Shame on Good Morning America, Democrats & Republicans! What About the Children?

Former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) is in big trouble for his alleged inappropriate (at best) emails to underage congressional pages.  As if the story isn't shocking enough, it just keeps getting worse.

This morning Good Morning America's Chris Cuomo reported that there is a chance that Republican Leadership has been aware of Rep. Foley's issues  for the last 5 years and that Congressional leaders had reported inappropriate behavior as recent as 2005.

The anchors, reporters and contributors of GMA seemed almost giddy when reporting that this case might have negative political implications for Republican leadership, the President and that it could cause the Democrats to win control of both the House and the Senate when the people go to the polls in 36 days.  It seems that the Dems are going to milk this crisis for all the political capital that it is worth in an attempt to win seats.

Regardless of who knew what and when, this is about wrong vs. right.  Rep. Foley has a problem that is far bigger than his public office or whether or not this will hurt his fellow Republicans at the polls in November.  Shame on GMA, Democrats and Republicans alike for even thinking about politics at a time like this.  That is disgusting.

Rep. Foley is accused of attempting to molest children---possibly having succeeded in his attempt(s).  Pedophilia is a sickness that needs to be addressed in our over sexed culture.  If Rep. Foley is found guilty of these charges then he needs to go to jail and to seek therapy. 

If Republican leadership did indeed know of Rep. Foley's past indiscretions then they should also resign and face charges for withholding information on crimes against children.  If that means Republicans lose seats this year or even the White House in 2008 then so be it.  Children come first.  End of discussion.

Lastly, this morning I was reading a gay weblog where the blogger "hoped" that Foley was innocent because being found guilty might not bode well for the GLBT community.  As with the Dems and Republicans, who cares how this affects the GLBT community or any other group for that matter.  How about hoping that Foley is innocent for the sole purpose that it means children weren't hurt.